The Way We Were (1973)

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The Way We Were Movie Review

The Way We Were is a 1973 romance film directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand. It is a solid and sometimes moving, but too slow movie.

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“Your girl is lovely, Hubbell“

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The story is pretty basic here and only a couple of its scenarios were interesting and different. For example, the entire political aspect to it was an interesting and new thing to add in a romance film. But it is still problematic. To me that aspect was overwhelming, yet constantly underutilized which was frustrating. I thought that sometimes their relationship and their quarrels did not make much sense. But I still liked that she is a politically active woman leading to a pretty strong female character for its time. As for the highlights in terms of the sequences, of course the ending takes the cake for being the most beautiful and emotional scene in the movie, very well done and quite unforgettable.

I liked the characters and their relationship was mostly sweet and engaging to follow. She is much more memorable as a character and quite interesting at times whereas he is a pretty ordinary guy in my opinion. As for the acting, Robert Redford has never been a great actor as I never really liked him in any movie, but here, even though he pales in comparison to his female co-star, he is still pretty good and gave one of his better roles for sure. But of course this is Streisand’s vehicle and she carries this movie entirely on her shoulder, giving a powerful and terrific performance. She certainly deserved her Oscar nomination.

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The Way We Were is famous for its titular musical number that is played in the beginning and the end of the film. I liked it and it fitted the movie quite well, but it was still a typical and not quite memorable seventies song. But the score as a whole is pretty good and it lifted some emotional scenes really well.

I thought that most of the dialogue here felt unrealistic and not that great with only a couple of lines being resonant and memorable. The characterization is strong, but most of the supporting characters were entirely forgettable and I thought that the movie should have had only these two. The script is also problematic. Sometimes I thought that some plot points rang false and overly melodramatic.

But the biggest problem is its pacing which is awfully slow and the running time definitely needed to be trimmed down a bit. The film is emotionally engaging, but because it was so long and not cinematic enough, it wasn’t as romantic as it should have been with the exception of a couple of great, exceptional moments between them. Sidney Pollack’s direction isn’t the greatest and, as I said, the movie never felt particularly cinematic and powerful. That is why their romance was never as epic as the film tried to portray it. It felt too small and definitely the cinematography needed to have been better. In the end, it is a solid film, but not as great as a sum of its parts.

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The Way We Were is romantic and sometimes quite moving with a beautiful ending, Barbra Streisand gave a great performance, the characterization is strong and the score is quite good, but the film isn’t cinematic enough, the pacing is awfully sluggish and it is just never as powerful as it thinks it is. It is a solid, but very flawed movie.